onic

Not sure if it's been covered here already however CLT will not service GIG starting early next year 2015. AA will continue to service this route from DFW JFK and MIA.

BoeingBoy

I mentioned it over on the combined speculation forum a little bit ago, but it's been speculated that it would happen for a while anyway. CLT-GRU stays as-is for a while.

Jim

IAHtraveler

Funny this should come up: I was on a redeye last night LAS-CLT with a PHX based crew. The one FA kept bragging about the merger to any customers that would listen. One thing she kept saying is how she's "heard from management that PHX will be getting a lot of new Asian and South American routes." Since she's been with US for 30 years, she said she's looking forward to having seniority on these new routes so she "can get paid to go take long vacations in Brazil."

She said management has been talking about these new routes since the merger was announced, and they should be made public "any day now." I guess they're killing CLT-GIG so they can start PHX-GIG

BoeingBoy

I think she's gonna be disappointed...

Jim

1353513636

Perhaps that's what they told them to get them so excited about the merger. You'd wonder why they so happily walked away from what PMUS/PMAA offered (assuming that both make money, which they most likely would have) which seemed a lot better, at least from what I could tell.

BoeingBoy

From the perspective of the US employees there's very little NOT to be excited about, at least so far and especially for a senior FA. More pay, a lot bigger choice of bases/trips, and a lot bigger choice of places to non-rev for pleasure.

On the other hand, I do honestly think this particular FA has set herself up for disappointment.

Jim

FWAAA

While I have to agree that she's likely to be very disappointed, perhaps there's a possibility that Parker intends to do at PHX what US has done so successfully at PHL and CLT - that is, fill international flights primarily with connecting traffic from other huge cities?

AA's 2013 yield on its Pacific operations (TPAC) amounted to about 12 cents per mile, far lower than UA or DL. Of course, AA could afford to subsidize those low yields with its approximate 18 cents per mile yield to Latin America. The Latin America ASMs far exceed the Pacific ASMs, so the losses on TPAC flights were dwarfed by the huge profits to Latin America.

So rather than continue to duke it out from LAX (and maybe CHI) to Asia, why not fly from PHX to Japan, Korea and China? Run a few 763s each day between LAX and PHX (plus maybe ORD and PHX) for all the connecting traffic and cater to the bargain hunters. Probably won't get much worse than the 12 cents per mile AA got last year.

coachrowsey

Unless something changed since I retired CLT-GIG not much local traffic, but they did load quite a bid of cargo.

BoeingBoy

Possible, although ORD is nearly the exact same distance and DFW is not that much further (although enough to possibly require a different airplane). As I'm sure you know, TPAC is definitely long enough that fuel becomes a big factor in cost and there's no sense in operating flights from PHX is yield isn't high enough to at least break even. It's quite possible that the 787/A350 are enough more fuel efficient to make the difference, but would it be better to use them on a marginal route or more profitable routes?

Jim

eddieflyer

Schedule is defined through January 10th, but award availability and revenue cease on 9/11, so I'm assuming they nixed it as of that date. Too bad, was trying to get one in.

Daily 22:40 Charlotte (CLT) 09:20 Internacional, Rio De Janeiro (GIG) 2
US Airways US 800 Non-stop Boeing 767-200 (762) 9:40 Effective 2014-04-29 through 2014-09-12
The flight arrives 1 day after departure.

Daily 22:35 Charlotte (CLT) 11:10 Internacional, Rio De Janeiro (GIG) 2
US Airways US 800 Non-stop Boeing 767-200 (762) 9:35 Effective 2014-12-02 through 2015-01-10